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Naturally Healthy Choices

Vintage Quest Acres

Vintage Quest Acres is an old fashioned diversified family homestead.  It’s old fashioned because we don’t use toxic chemicals, because our family owns and lives on the farm, we don’t use concentrated feeding operation (CFO or CAFO) techniques and we try to be as sustainable as possible.  It’s diversified because it has a bit of everything a family could need vs. the mono-culture operations so common now. 

Few things are as personal or as important as the food we eat. At VQA we care about quality, about health, about sustainability and we have a personal relationship with those who eat our food. Like the family farms of the past, which are almost extinct, for us it is a way of life not just a cold corporate profit center in a rural area. Although it seems normal to us, several things we do are innovative, unusual and ‘cutting edge’. In general I do not endorse the industrial farming trends that began in the 1960’s. Although efficient, industrial agriculture is extremely harmful over the long term. I believe most of the farming practices that have become almost universal have only one goal: short term corporate profits. When you buy food you vote for a system of beliefs and practices – your dollars matter. Industrial food is cheaper – you can pay now or pay later in health care and environmental costs. What does your spending say about you?

We have two certifications on VQA. One from the National Wildlife Federation and one from the Veteran Farmer Coalition.

 

Why we farm

VQA has several purposes including:

  • A ‘therapy farm’.  Zimbo is a disabled combat veteran with chronic physical pain, PTSD and brain injury.  His wounds are such that he must devote hours every day to managing his pain, brain and emotions.  Being on a quiet country farm where he is free to busy himself as he chooses is the solution best for him.  Additionally some people have therapy service dogs.  Zimbo has therapy cows, therapy goats, therapy fowl, therapy plants and a therapy tractor.
  • A source of quality food. Most of what people eat is not food, it is ‘food like substances’. Good nutrition is difficult to find and when available it is very expensive. The food I produce on this farm provides my family with the best for much less.  Surplus is sold to reduce the cost of maintaining the farm.
  • A ‘doomsday preparation’.  What if there is an energy crisis, a major global conflict, a series of drastic climate crises, a ‘biggish’ celestial body impacts Earth, a major agricultural crisis due to disease, our population exceeds sustainable levels, fish stocks crash, pollution or invasive species destroy ecosystems, or some other unexpected event causes food production to not meet needs? Some choose store ‘food-like products’ in their basement.  My opinion is that it is better to have a continuous source of food generated at home.  An old-fashioned, diversified farm is the original and best long term survival system. Our ancestors used such farms for millennia when away from other support systems.  My goal is:
    • to have all the food necessities (sweeteners, protein, fats, oils, fruits, veggies, nuts, carbohydrates) available all year long. I also want enough surplus for trading.
    • to generate my own electricity
    • to make my own bio-diesel
    • to make my own methane (natural gas)
    • grow enough firewood for heat and cooking
    • have an endless supply of clean spring water and rainwater catchment for crops, livestock and humans